Years of "stagnation" in the USSR (1960s - early 1980s): reasons and consequences

The Soviet state, as is known, existed for seventy-four years, which included several periods that differed significantly from each other (revolutionary crisis, Civil War, New Economic Policy, industrialization-collectivization, war-post-war time, "thaw", "stagnation" and "perestroika"). The article examines the longest, almost 20-year period, which in the literature is called "stagnation" and is associated with the stay at the head of the USSR of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L.B. Brezhnev (mid-1960s - early 1980s). Attention is focused on the socio-economic origins of the "stagnation", bearing in mind that the content of this period in the literature is covered in sufficient detail, in contrast to the causes of the stagnation times. It is noted, in particular, that alarming symptoms in the economy, namely the economic component was the root cause of the "stagnation", began to manifest themselves under the leader of the USSR N.S. Khrushchev, when a slowdown in the growth rate of economic development was noted. To correct the situation, a change in the system of economic incentives was envisaged (the "Kosygin" reforms), which, however, did not entail the expected results. Government bodies, and above all at the local level, managing the state economy, were unable to adjust economic relations to more effective results.